Mayo firm plans to slash Government lighting bills

Gabrielle Monaghan

CandeLas, a Mayo-based energy performance contractor that promises to save businesses as much as 80pc on lighting costs, has assembled project financing worth €25m and is in talks with the Government to retrofit State-owned buildings with energy efficient lighting.

CandeLas, a Mayo-based energy performance contractor that promises to save businesses as much as 80pc on lighting costs, has assembled project financing worth €25m and is in talks with the Government to retrofit State-owned buildings with energy efficient lighting.

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Mayo firm plans to slash Government lighting bills

Independent.ie

CandeLas, a Mayo-based energy performance contractor that promises to save businesses as much as 80pc on lighting costs, has assembled project financing worth €25m and is in talks with the Government to retrofit State-owned buildings with energy efficient lighting.

Sean Hyland, the company's managing director, said Candelas has assembled loans with Irish and British banks, UK investment houses and investors with Irish backgrounds who specialise in green banking, but declined to identify the backers.

During ongoing negotiations with the Government, Candelas suggested a pilot retrofit programme that the company would finance with the loans to the tune of €5m.

This would save the Government €2.5m a year and create as many as 100 jobs, he added.

If it secures the contract, Candelas plans to roll out a nationwide lighting retrofit of State buildings, such as some of the 1,700 properties managed by the Office of Public Works.

"In order to avail of the financing from the UK, the project needs to have a low risk profile and that essentially means the State or Government," Mr Hyland said.

"The €25m is ours and we can use that money in the private sector in the UK as well... But we'd like to create the jobs in Ireland."

Mr Hyland said retrofitting buildings with more efficient lighting under a pay-as-you-save contract would lead to the creation of "hundreds of jobs without the Government spending any money" and help Ireland to achieve its 2020 targets for carbon emissions.